07.02.2020
Part IV: The Meanings of the Runes This section provides the sign, name, phoneme (sound), and short description of the meaning of each of the twenty-four runes that comprise the Elder Futhark. The given meanings are based on the medieval Rune Poems (which are conveniently available online here) exclusively. Where...
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Part III: Runic Philosophy and Magic In the pre-Christian Germanic worldview, the spoken word was believed to possess incredibly potent creative powers. When words were spoken aloud, they were thought to have a tangible and unalterable impact on reality. This concept is similar to the philosophy of language proposed by...
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Part II: The Origins of the Runes The historical origins of runic writing are a subject of scholarly debate, but there is a general consensus on a likely outline of their development. Runes are believed to have been derived from one of the Old Italic alphabets used by Mediterranean peoples in the first century CE, who...
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Part I: Introduction The first systems of writing developed and used by the Norse and other Germanic peoples were runic alphabets. The runes functioned as letters, but they were much more than just letters in the sense in which we today understand the term. Each rune was an ideographic or...
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